


Rewrite the Stars

by ezazahaz



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Inspired by Music, M/M, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-12 14:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19947844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ezazahaz/pseuds/ezazahaz
Summary: For WinterIron Week Day 3: SoulmatesEveryone has a red thread around their left ring finger. It’s not physically there, you can’t feel it, but it connects you to the only other person in the world who can see your string. The string brings you to the one you were meant to find, to be with, to share your soul with.The thing is, sometimes fate can be an asshole.





	Rewrite the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by “Rewrite the Stars” from “The Greatest Showman”

Everyone has a red thread around their left ring finger. It’s not physically there, you can’t feel it, but it connects you to the only other person in the world who can see your string. The string brings you to the one you were meant to find, to be with, to share your soul with.

The thing is, sometimes fate can be an asshole.

* * *

Tony was twenty-three when he met the person on the other end of his red thread. His soulmate.

Sunset Bain.

She was intelligent and beautiful, interested in his work, and all his fears that his soulmate wouldn’t want him were allayed when she gave every impression of loving him back.

Tony was twenty-four when those fears turned to nightmarish reality.

Their divorce was public and messy. She ended up with half of his company, which was apparently all she’d been after in the first place. He ended up with a broken heart, and the public’s disdain for having failed his soul bond.

* * *

Bucky hadn’t met the person on the other end of his string by the time he fell from a train in the Alps.

The metal arm Hydra gave him had no red string tying him to anyone. 

After all, the Winter Soldier had no soul.

* * *

After his soulmate’s betrayal, Tony’s thread had appeared pale and frayed but stayed intact, despite his lack of communication with Sunset for over a decade, and his frequent liasons with anyone, man or woman, willing to have sex outside of a soul bond.

It wasn’t until his second horrific betrayal, Obie standing over his paralyzed body and taking the arc reactor Tony needed to survive, that the thread finally snapped.

“I couldn’t have done this without that soulmate of yours. Ms. Bain was only too willing to help. Too bad you let her get away,” Obadiah whispered.

Tony felt the tug of the reactor pulling free of its casing at the same moment as he felt the thread around his finger pull taught, then the loose end sharply flick back at him, no longer connected to anyone.

He wasn’t sure which hurt worse.

* * *

Sometimes, after the incidents in DC, when he was starting to return to himself, Bucky looked at his hands, wondering if the string would return. It belonged to his soul, not his physical finger, right?

And now that he was becoming... if not the Bucky Barnes he had been, at least someone resembling a man instead of a mindless soldier... but the string still didn’t appear, what would that mean for his soul?

Was it lost forever?

* * *

When Steve told him about the Winter Soldier’s part in his parents’ deaths, Tony spent a few days ~~freaking out~~ coping with the new information, but finally accepted that Hydra’s brainwashing meant the man was just the weapon, another victim of the Nazi shitholes who’d used him.

So when said Winter Soldier--now back to being Barnes again--appeared at Avengers Tower, Tony only briefly hesitated before offering him a place to stay. (The fact that the man was smoking hot didn’t factor into the offer... which wasn’t to say that Tony didn’t notice.)

When Steve coaxed Barnes into joining the team for group meals or movie nights, Tony wasn’t sure how to act around the guy, but ended up taking the route he’d taken with Bruce--teasing, practically goading him into bringing the brainwashed Soldier out. Steve was horrified, the others wary, but Barnes... well, at first he seemed taken aback, but then it seemed to help him relax around the group, and eventually the others relaxed, too.

And when Barnes’ metal arm acted up, Tony was more than willing to get his hands on it and see what improvements he could make.

* * *

The sudden cessation of pain left Bucky feeling almost euphoric. It had been gradually getting worse, so he hadn’t realized how bad it was until it was gone.

“Thank you,” he breathed, looking up at Stark gratefully.

“Not done yet,” the man replied, eyes still on the tools he was gently probing into Bucky’s shoulder.

Maybe the lab should have felt more like the horrible Hydra facilities with the chair, but instead it just felt like something out of science fiction, complete with strangely adorable robots.

Stark continued, “I just separated the wires that were causing the worst of the shorts, but honestly I should probably replace at least two of these...”

Bucky listened to the stream of explanation, even if he didn’t understand all of it, appreciating that Stark was explaining what he was doing, unlike the Hydra techs who’d basically treated him like another tool.

As Stark was finishing up, he had Bucky move each finger in turn. When he got to the ring finger, Stark paused. “Do you have a...” He trailed off.

“Soul string?” Bucky asked.

Stark shook his head. “Nevermind, I shouldn’t pry.”

Considering the questions he’d heard the man ask others about things as personal as their preferred sexual positions, Bucky found it entertaining that _now_ Stark didn’t want to pry. He decided to answer the question anyway. “I don’t have one, not anymore. Never met my soulmate before, and now there’s nothin’ there.” He was more accepting of it now than he had been, and it wasn’t like anyone would want a former Hydra assassin as their soulmate even if the one he’d been destined for was still alive somewhere.

Bucky almost wanted to ask about Stark’s string, but when he saw the shadowed look in his eyes, and the way he moved his left hand down and almost behind his back--out of both men’s line of sight--Bucky decided against asking.

For now.

* * *

“Move your legs, asshole.”

“Nope. You move your feet, you lose your seat.”

“Stevie, your soulmate’s even more of a punk than you are, how do you stand it?”

Tony watched as Bucky and Sam argued over the third cushion on the couch that should’ve had space for four, if Steve were smaller and Sam weren’t stretched sideways across it.

“My leg still hurts from that battle with the animated traffic lights,” Sam argued.

“That was a week ago!”

“He doesn’t have our healing factor, Buck,” Steve said earnestly, wrapping an arm around his soulmate’s waist. Sam gave a smug look of triumph, and Bucky looked torn between acquiescing to Steve and ripping Sam a new one. 

“There’s space over here,” Tony said, shifting to make more room for Bucky’s large shoulders on the loveseat. 

Bucky glared at Sam one more time, then came to plop down beside Tony.

“Popcorn?” Tony offered. “Just for us, not seat-stealing jerks.” He ignored Sam’s “hey!” as he held out the bowl.

“Thanks, doll.” Bucky smiled at him warmly, before shoving a piece in his mouth and then licking his fingers.

Tony swallowed, torn between discomfort and longing.

There was no point in thinking about what could never be, despite his growing feelings for the man.

* * *

The articles Bucky found online regarding Tony’s marriage and subsequent divorce weren’t flattering, but he had a hard time believing the story of a callous, negligent womanizer who’d given his soulmate no choice but to leave him or be doomed to a life of misery.

But the photographic evidence of Tony’s playboy ways were hard to refute.

“JARVIS, do you know what really happened with Tony and this Sunset Bain?”

There was a pause, possibly the AI determining if his creator would consider the information off-limits. “I was not created until after the Sir’s divorce, but from evidence I have gathered, he felt strongly for her, while she used the legal ramifications of a soul bonded marriage to gain access to Stark Industries resources and Sir’s intellectual property.”

“And the sleeping around?”

“I have over 99 percent certainty that he did not engage in relations with others until after the marriage ended.” JARVIS sounded almost scolding, as if offended Bucky might consider otherwise.

But Bucky nodded. “That makes a lot more sense than this bullshit.” He gestured to the article he had open. “But did he ever have anything... serious? With anyone after?”

“I have no record of him engaging in a relationship for longer than a week.”

Bucky was sorry to hear that, thinking of how lonely Tony must have been, but at the same time... Contemplating how Tony looked at him sometimes, he wondered if maybe he could change that.

* * *

Since he’d been getting along better with Bucky, Tony didn’t think anything of the invitation to join him at a car show and then dinner after. It promised to be an enjoyable time with a friend.

It wasn’t until partway through dinner that Tony realized, “Wait, was this a date?”

Bucky laughed, and at first Tony figured that meant he was wrong, but then Bucky answered, “I had a feeling you might not have picked up on that.”

At least Bucky wasn’t offended. But... “I, uh, don’t do dates. I’m sorry if you got that impression.”

Bucky’s grin disappeared, and Tony mourned its loss, almost wanted to take back what he’d said. “But I’ve seen the articles...”

“I fuck,” Tony admitted, though he hadn’t really even done that since Afghanistan. “I don’t do romance.”

“You want me,” Bucky said, firmly, not quite desperately, “I’ve seen how you look at me.”

“I wouldn’t turn down a roll in the hay, but we could’ve skipped all this,” Tony said, hating himself even as he said it. The day had been amazing, he just hadn’t realized that Bucky had intended it differently.

Bucky looked down. “You don’t mean that.” He looked back up, and there was determination in his eyes. “You had a good time.”

Tony sighed. “I... yes. Because I thought we were doing it as friends.”

“So you could be friends with me, and you could _fuck_ me,” Bucky spit the word like it offended him, “But you couldn’t go on a date with me?” His face showed how incredulous he considered the idea.

“No.” Tony stood, dropping on the table enough cash to pay for both their meals and a substantial tip. “Sorry.”

He walked out of the restaurant.

* * *

Bucky was hurt and angry.

After he managed to stop his mind from replaying Tony’s “I wouldn’t turn down a roll in the hay, but we could’ve skipped all this” on repeat, though, he forced himself to calm down, to accept his own faults in the mess.

Tony didn’t owe him a date, or even an answer to why he wouldn’t. And really, Bucky should’ve made sure Tony knew it was a date from the start (though in his defence, he hadn’t realized Tony didn’t know until they’d been heading to dinner), shouldn’t have expected Tony to be fine with a date when it wasn’t what he’d agreed to.

It still hurt, especially when he _knew_ how Tony looked at him.

Thor was the only one in the common room when Bucky returned, playing Wii bowling. “Your courtship attempt did not go well, I take it?” 

Somehow _Thor_ had picked up on the fact that it was a date, but Tony hadn’t, Bucky thought bitterly. He almost turned and left the room, figuring he’d nurse his wounds in private, but apparently his mouth decided maybe he wanted to talk to someone after all. “Nope. Guess maybe he’s still hung up on the lady he’s connected to, even if she was shit to him.”

Thor gave him a strange look, letting the Wiimote dangle from his wrist. “Tony’s strand of fate is not connected to anyone.”

“He’s... what?” Bucky asked. He felt strangely hurt that Tony might’ve trusted Thor with that information, but not him.

“I forget sometimes that Midgardians can only see their own strands. And perhaps it is not my place to share this, but I feel it is information you need: Tony’s strand appears snapped. It is not currently connected to another soul.”

Bucky stared dumbly at Thor. “Oh.”

“Midgardians also seem surprised to find that strands of fate are not immutable. You yourself had one once, yes?”

Bucky touched his ring finger, feeling oddly exposed even though Thor would only see what everyone else could see--nothing. “Yes.”

“The fact that you do not now does not mean that you will never have one again. And the fact that Tony’s is currently unconnected does not mean it will stay that way.” Thor looked at him seriously, and Bucky realized that for all the man appeared to be goofy and oblivious at times, they often forgot that he had millennia of wisdom. And Thor was definitely trying to tell him something now.

Something that let some hope in to replace the hurt and anger and despair he’d been feeling.

* * *

Tony figured it’d be safe to go to the common kitchen at three in the morning.

He figured wrong, and startled when the dark form leaning on the counter said, “Hey.”

Tony jerked back, grateful he didn’t drop the empty coffee mug he was holding, and glared. “There a reason you’re sitting in the dark?”

“There a reason you’re avoiding me?” Bucky countered.

“I’ve... been busy.”

“Uh-huh.” Bucky tossed something across the room, hitting the light switch, and the lights came on, making Tony blink.

“You know, JARVIS will turn on the lights for you if you ask nicely.”

“And he’ll tell me when you’ll be coming up from the lab so I can finally talk to you. Thanks, Jarv.”

“Yes, thanks for that, J,” Tony said, much more sarcastically.

“It is my pleasure to serve,” came the AI’s smartass reply.

“Tony.” Bucky’s gaze was serious, and it made Tony want to run the other way. “You don’t have to tell me, but I think it’ll be better for both of us if you do. Why don’t you do romance?”

Tony sighed. Something about the night, and the softness of Bucky’s tone, made him give in and answer. “Romance is for soulmates. I fucked up with mine. What’s the point in trying for something that’s not meant to be, if what _was_ meant to be could go so badly?”

“But you’re not meant for her, not anymore.” It wasn’t a question.

“How--you’ve been talking to Thor, haven’t you?”

“He had some interesting things to say. Strings can change. Both of ours have; they could again.”

The implication in what Bucky said made Tony’s heart throb with yearning, but he had to ignore it. “Yeah, you could be meant to find someone else. Someone better, someone without my past, my reputation.”

“I don’t care about that, and I don’t want someone else. I want you. And dammit, I know you want me, too.”

Tony swallowed and looked away, unable to deny it, unable to say the words to confirm it.

“Even if our strings never change again, even if I get a new string that leads to someone else some day... Tony, it shouldn’t be up to fate. It’s up to you and me. _What do you want?_ ”

“...you,” Tony breathed, then met Bucky’s eyes and said more firmly. “I want you. I want us.”

Bucky broke into a huge, breathtaking smile, and he surged forward.

Tony met him halfway, and when their lips met it felt better than anything fate could ever design.

* * *

Some sensation--not sound, not touch, something _different_ \--woke Bucky, and he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was Tony asleep beside him, and he smiled. He’d been waking beside Tony for over a week now, and it felt amazing every time.

This time, though, there was something else.

On Tony’s hand, nestled up by his face, Bucky saw a fleck of red. Curious, Bucky reached out with his left hand and--

There was a string. A red string connecting Bucky’s metal hand to Tony’s, tying them together, the universe finally acknowledging what Bucky and Tony had already decided they were going to be.

Bucky took Tony’s hand, reveling in the new connection he now felt between them. He’d have been content to live without it, but now that it was there, it was so much more amazing.

“Mmm?” Tony mumbled, partially awakened by Bucky’s motion but not opening his eyes.

“Everything’s fine, love,” Bucky assured him, and kissed their joined hands.

_Everything’s wonderful, my soulmate._


End file.
